CHAP. is not feduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the fubject. In all his works, LXX. Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious writer, who afpires above the prejudices of a Catholic prieft. He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after paffing near fixty years in the libraries of Milan and Modena (Vita del Propofto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and fucceffor Gian, Francefco Soli Muratori Venezia, 1756, in 4to.) CHAP. CHAP. LXXI. Profpect of the Ruins of Rome in the Fifteenth Century.--- a СНА Р. N the last days of pope Eugenius the fourth two of his servants, the learned Poggius (1) and a friend, ascended the Capitoline hill; repofed themselves among the ruins of View and columns and temples; and viewed from that commanding difcourfe of Poggius fpot the wide and various prospect of defolation (2). The from the place and the object gave ample scope for moralizing on Capitoline the viciffitudes of fortune, which fpares neither man nor hill, the proudeft of his works, which buries empires and cities A. D. 1430. in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more awful and deplorable. "Her primæval ftate, fuch as the might appear in a remote age, when Evander entertained "the stranger of Troy (3), has been delineated by the 66 66 fancy of Virgil. This Tarpeian rock was then a favage "and folitary thicket: in the time of the poet, it was "crowned with the golden roofs of a temple; the temple "is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the wheel of "fortune (1) I have already (not. 50, 51. on chap. 65.) mentioned the age, character, and writings of Poggius, and particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune. (2) Confedimus in ipfis Tarpeiæ arcis ruinis, pone ingens portæ cujufdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimafque paffium confractas columnas, unde magnâ ex parte profpectus urbis patet (p. 5.). (3) Eneid viii. 97-369. This ancient picture, fo artfully introduced, and fo exquifitely finished, must have been highly interefting to an inhabitant of Rome, and our early ftudies allow us to fympathife in the feelings of a Roman. LXXI. CHAP. "fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the facred "ground is again disfigured with thorns and brambles. "The hill of the Capitol, on which we fit, was formerly "the head of the Roman empire, the citadel of the earth, "the terror of kings; illuftrated by the footsteps of so many "triumphs, enriched with the spoils and tributes of so many "nations. This fpectacle of the world, how is it fallen! "how changed! how defaced! the path of victory is obli"terated by vines, and the benches of the fenators are con"cealed by a dunghill. Caft your eyes on the Palatine hill, "and feek among the fhapelefs and enormous fragments, "the marble theatre, the obelifk, the coloffal ftatues, the His defcrip ruins. porticoes of Nero's palace: furvey the other hills of the "city, the vacant fpace is interrupted only by ruins and "gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they "affembled to enact their laws and elect their magiftrates, "is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or "thrown open for the reception of fwine and buffaloes. "The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie proftrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs "of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from "the ftupendous relics that have furvived the injuries of "time and fortune (4)." These relics are minutely defcribed by Poggius, one of the tion of the first who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those of claffic, fuperftition (5). 1. Befides a bridge, an arch, a fepulchre, and the pyramid of Ceftius, he could difcern, of the age of the republic, a double row of vaults in the falt-office of the Capitol, which were inscribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples were vifible in fome degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three arches and a marble column of the temple of peace, which Vefpafian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the number, which he rafhly defines, of feven therma or public baths, none were fufficiently entire to reprefent the ufe and diftribution of the feveral parts; but those of Diocletian and Antoninus Cara calla (4) Capitolium adeo. . . . immutatum ut vinee in fenatorum fubfellia fuccefferint, ftercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum. Refpice ad Palatinum montem .... vafta rudera .... cæteros colles perluftra omnia vacua ædificiis, ruinis vineisque oppleta confpicies (Poggius de Varictat. Fortunæ, p. 21.). (5) See Poggius, p. 8-22. calla ftill retained the titles of the founders, and astonished CHA P. the curious fpectator, who, in obferving their folidity and LXXI. extent, the variety of marbles, the fize and multitude of the columns, compared the labour and expence with the use and importance. Of the baths of Conftantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, fome veftige might yet be found. 4. The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Conftantine, were entire, both the structure and the infcriptions; a falling fragment was honoured with the name of Trajan; and two arches, then extant, in the Flaminian way, have been ascribed to the bafer memory of Fauftina and Gallienus. 5. After the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius might have overlooked a small amphitheatre of brick, moft probably for the use of the prætorian camp: the theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were occupied in a great measure by public and private buildings; and in the Circus, Agonalis and Maximus, little more than the fituation and the form could be inveftigated. 6. The columns of Trajan and Antonine were still erect; but the Egyptian obelisks were broken or buried. A people of gods and heroes, the workmanship of art, was reduced to one equestrian figure of gilt brafs, and to five marble ftatues, of which the most confpicuous were the two horfes of Phidias and Praxiteles. The two mausoleums or fepulchres of Auguftus and Hadrian could not totally be loft; but the former was only visible as a mound of earth; and the latter, the caftle of St. Angelo, had acquired the name and appearance of a modern fortress. With the addition of fome feparate and nameless columns, fuch were the remains of the ancient city: for the marks of a more recent structure might be detected in the walls, which formed a circumference of ten miles, included three hundred and feventy-nine turrets, and opened into the country by thirteen gates. 7. Rome. This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred Gradual years after the fall of the Western empire, and even of the decay of Gothic kingdom of Italy. A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire, and arts, and riches, had migrated from the banks of the Tyber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every fucceffive age must have hafened the ruin of the works of antiquity. To measure the progrefs of decay, and to ascertain at each æra the state of each edifice, would be an endless and a ufelefs labour, and I fhall content LXXI. 1. Two CHA P. Content myself with two obfervations which will introduce a fhort enquiry into the general caufes and effects. hundred years before the eloquent complaint of Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a defcription of Rome (6). His ignorance may repeat the fame objects under ftrange and fabulous names. Yet this barbarous topographer had eyes and ears, he could obferve the vifible remains, he could listen to the tradition of the people, and he diftin&tly enumerates feven theatres, eleven baths, twelve arches, and eighteen palaces, of which many had disappeared before the time of Poggius. It is apparent, that many stately monuments of antiquity furvived till a late period (7), and that the principles of deftruction acted with vigorous and encreasing energy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The fame reflection must be applied to the three last ages; and we should vainly feek the Septizonium of Severus (8), which is celebrated by Petrarch and the antiquarians of the fixteenth century. While the Roman edifices were still entire, the first blows, however weighty and impetuous, were refifted by the folidity of the mafs and the harmony of parts; but the flighteft touch would precipitate the fragments of arches and columns, that already nodded to their fall. Four caufes tion: 2. After a diligent enquiry, I can difcern four principal of deftruc- causes of the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a period of more than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and nature. II. The hoftile attacks of the Barbarians and Christians. III. The use and abuse of the materials. And, IV. The domestic quarrels of the Romans. 1. The injuries of nature; 1. The art of man is able to conftruct monuments far more permanent than the narrow fpan of his own existence : yet these monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail ; and (6) Liber de Mirabilibus Romæ, ex Registro Nicolai Cardinalis de Arragonia. in Bibliothecâ St. Ifidori Armario IV N° 69. This treatife, with fome fhort but pertinent notes, has been published by Montfaucon (Diarium Italicum, p. 283-301.), who thus delivers his own critical opinion: Scriptor xiiimi circiter fæculi, ut ibidem notatur; antiquariæ rei imperitus, et, ut ab illo ævo, nugis et anilibus fabellis refertus: fed, quia monumenta que iis temporibus Romæ fupererant pro modulo recentet, non parum inde lucis mutuabitur qui Romanis antiquitatibus indagnandis operam navabit (p. 283.). (7) The Pere Mabillon (Analecta, tom. iv. p. 502.) has published an anonymous pilgrim of the ixth century, who, in his vifit round the churches and holy places of Rome, touches on several buildings, especially porticoes, which had disappeared before the xiiith century. (8) On the Septizonium, fee the Mémoires fur Pétrarque (tom. i. p. 325.), Donatus (p. 338.), and Nardini (p. 117. 414.). |